Tag Archives: socks

When the new year begins I like to start a fresh to-do list for my knitting and crochet projects. I usually start out overly ambitious with a list longer than my arm. Some years I only get done up to my elbow, but that’s ok. I’m a gal that likes a plan, but don’t mind changing/altering/deleting the plan for a different plan when the need arises.

The first project I am working on is a pair of socks. The pattern is out of a book one of my son’s got me for Christmas, Socktopus by Alice Yu. It is called Om Shanti. I used 2 size 2 Addi circulars, making both at the same time until I got to the leg (these are toe up). Now I’ve divided them because the pattern calls for moving the stitches from needle to needle to jog the pattern. The yarn is some fabulous hand dyed Merino Superwash Wool in a beautifil colorway called Arizona Turquoise. I think they are working up really nicely and hope to finish them this week.

So far I’ve been asked to make an adorable Viking Hat for a friend’s new baby. I’m using this pattern: Viking Set – Viking Hat, Diaper Cover and Club by JTcreations check it out on Ravelry.

One of the gals at work asked me to make her a pair of socks. I’m going to use my favorite “plain” sock pattern that uses sport or DK wt yarn because she wants them to wear around the house when it is cold. You can find it here: Moda Dea LM0131, Knitted Socks. I’ve picked up some really soft washable yarn at Hobby Lobby that is part acrylic, part alpaca. I plan to start them when I finish my Christmas socks.

For the NICU unit this Easter, I plan to make these adorable Lamb Hats, the pattern was designed by Sarah Zimmerman. I won’t make the flaps or ties because they might get in the way since these babies have a lot going one.

I’m going to teach a Lunch & Learn class at work for anyone that wants to learn how to knit. Because we want the participants to make progress quickly, I searched for a pattern for a simple garter stitch scarf. Luckily I remembered Susie at our knitting night working on a cowl on huge needles. She is a new knitter and has whipped up 11 of them since November! She shared the pattern, which is just 10 stitches on size 50 (yes, you read it right) needles using super-bulky yarn. You work with 2 strands of yarn and it zips up super quick. I made a sample in a couple of hours today. As cold as it is here today, I could use this fluffy warm cowl to keep my face and neck warm. 🙂

Other misc projects I will get rolling on will be NICU hats for Christmas and either Thanksgiving or Halloween. Most likely they will be crocheted because they work up faster.

There will be a few Christmas gifts and I’d like to make a few more of the sock patterns that are in Socktopus. I certainly have a wide variety of yarns in my stash that I can use.

And of course my annual WIP. Seriously, I only have to do the one cuff ribbing and the neck ribbing on my brown sweater. I seriously am going to finish it. I have one sock to make to complete the plain black pair I started last February AND the afghans that I have had part of the squares completed for over a hear. As a matter of fact, I used part of the yarn for another project.

I was going to do today’s post on the Mannheim Steamroller concert last night, but I’ll save that for tomorrow.

The concert was ok, the venue is awesome. But as we were waiting to file out after the sold-out show, one of our group glanced down at floor of the row behind us and this is what they saw. They cracked up and had to share it with the rest of us.

Yup, there is a program from the performance, a an empty glass with a crumpled up napkin inside and a pair of men’s socks. Oh yeah, a pair of socks!?! Did the guy behind us get hot during the performance? Did he have a spare pair in his pocket and drop them? Was he using them for mittens if he got cold? Were they in his wife’s purse in case of emergency and she accidentally dropped them when getting out a contraband box of Junior Mints???

So many questions and no answers. But we had a lot of fun imagining what happened. And why someone would bring AND drop a pair of socks at an indoor concert in a classic theater.

Why 2×2 you ask? Is it a piece of wood I am referring to? Or perhaps one of those breakfasts they offer at our local dinner – 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 pieces of toast & 2 sausage links? *Sidebar* it should be a 2x2x2x2, but who am I to correct the menu for them & it works.

Anyway, the 2×2 I am referring to is 2 weeks and 2 days late for WIP Wednesday. Life has gotten in the way of blogging these last few weeks, so I figured better late than never.

I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Scarf for my cousin is complete. I have enough yarn to make a smaller version for my tiniest cousin (first cousin once removed, but let’s not quibble – remember the 2×2 above). I may take that on vacation with me, it would be a great project for the ride to Florida.

The lavender baby blanket is complete. I took it to work this morning and neglected to take a picture first. In my own defense, I didn’t finish it until almost 10 last night and forgot this morning when I left at 6:00.

I had to miss the Knitting Group last week, so nothing to report there. I did get the pink bear hat done for the NICU nurse’s baby as well as another two – one complete and one ready to sew together when I go to the next Knitting Group.

I am joining a KAL that Wool & Co ( http://www.woolandcompany.com/ ) has on their website for the football season. It looks fun. Check out the details by pasting the link above in your browser or right click on it and choose “go to”.

Since I got the 2 projects done that I promised myself I’d do before starting anything else, I am going to start those socks that I have been dying to start since buying the fabulous yarn at the Chicago Yarn Crawl a few weekends ago. Just as soon as I catch up on book reviews 🙂 I’ve finished 2 great books in the last 2 weeks, but haven’t had a chance to review them yet. This weekend for sure.

Last but not least I am making more bear hats. No surprises there, they are my go-to quick take to work projects for break time.

The only pic of the last few projects is apparently the one of the scarf. I dunno why I didn’t snap a few of the others. Because we all know that a whole bunch of words and no pictures make for a boring blog, I’ve included one of my favorites from the knitting calendar that Leslie gave me for Christmas last year. 🙂

This has been a busy week in my world. I started the baby blanket I’m making for a friend at work and have made great progress on the scarf I’ve been working on. Check ’em out

I love the orchid baby blanket, it has been a long time since I’ve used this color and it is a nice change from blue or pink.

And my find of the week is a local yarn shop with in *GASP* walking distance of our house! I picked up a beautiful hank of tonal red yarn that I am going use to make a pair of socks. I got a really cute pattern that they were giving out at the LYS for the Yarn Crawl. If I can figure out a plan, I hope to visit more shops on Saturday since the Yarn Crawl will still be going on . I know I don’t need any more yarn. But I do have a VISA gift card that I’ve been saving since Christmas that is meant to be used on some kind of fabulous fiber.

That is my story and I’m sticking to it. 🙂

This week I hope to finish the scarf and get the blanket 1/2 done. A NICU hat needs to be completed before next Thursday as that is the next meeting of our knitting group. If it accomplish those 3 goals, I am going to cast on the socks.

I really love the pattern, You can find it here: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/cp4.html It is called Shell’s Baby Afghan by Beverly A. Qualheim. It is especially cute in pink. Maybe that is because I have three sons so there wasn’t any pink in our laundry basket. 🙂

The color in this picture is more true than the first picture.

After finishing the afghan, I made a couple of pink polar bear hats for the NICU unit at Central DuPage Hospital. I think they turned out really cute. This is a pattern that I’ve used before, it works up quickly and is really cute.

The only adjustment I made was on the second hat I didn’t knit the entire suggested length of 14 inches, because I didn’t want it to be as large as the pattern calls for. Here is the pattern link, and I highly suggest using the Bernat pipsqueak yarn that is as soft as a cloud and works up beautifully, http://www.yarnspirations.com/li-l-polar-bear-hat.html

Since it is late, I suspect I will take some white Bernat yarn to work tomorrow to work on another baby hat. This weekend I may start a new project. I am itching to make a lace shawl for cool summer nights, but just can’t find a pattern that is what I want. I could finish the second sock – but that can probably wait until our summer trip to see our son and daughter-in-law. The drive is about 10 hours, so it is a good time to work on socks.

I have the sweater started last year calling to be finished, but still am not happy with the sleeves the pattern calls for, and have torn them out twice already. It won’t take long to finish once I sit down and get busy figuring it out, but don’t know if this weekend will allow the time.

I guess the WIP next week will be a surprise for all of us – me included! 🙂

Welcome to WIP Wednesday – which has apparently slipped to Thursday again this week. The reason (excuse) is Wednesday was my middle son’s birthday and went out to dinner to celebrate. By the time I got home, I vegged in the chair without even opening my computer. Maybe it was the delicious Chinese food we had for dinner or maybe not, but whatever the reason, here I am now.

This week I completed my first sock and promptly sealed it in a ziploc bag with the yarn, instructions/notes and needles so I can pick it up the next time I travel. Which I hope is soon. But mostly for the travel, not the sock, which won’t be needed until fall when it gets cold enough to wear my boots again.

The good news is I got about 1/2 to 2/3 done on the baby afghan for the gal at work. The bad news is she told me on Monday that her friend had a girl, not a boy like she anticipated. Hum, before ordering a blue and yellow blanket would you make sure said child is going to be a boy or get a more gender neutral color ordered? She suggested just “adding a few rows of pink”. Nope, can’t have anyone think that was MY choice.

So over to Hobby Lobby with the hubby Tuesday night to get a wonderful baby pink color. I’ve just discovered “I Love This Yarn” that comes in a 7 oz skein of acrylic worsted weight for only $3.99 each. It is really nice yarn, soft, yet sturdy enough to show the stitches nicely. It isn’t as soft as Brava from Knit Picks, but is almost 1/2 the price and I don’t have to wait a week for delivery. Acrylic is my choice for baby afghans because machine wash and dry is a must for baby items. And I don’t have to worry about wool allergies since I rarely know the recipients.

I’m only a few rows in, because break yesterday was nonexistent due to a meeting (what the heck?) and I only got to work on it during lunch. But I think it is cute and very girly. I almost wrote that I should have it done by next week, but we have out of town guests coming in on Friday night, an anniversary party on Saturday and a BBQ on Sunday. Soooooo, not much time to crochet. I’ll be conservative and predict I’ll be 1/3 – 1/2 done by next Wednesday and hopefully be further along.

Regarding the blue and yellow blanket. I am not tearing it out, because I think it is really cute and I am already about 6 hours in. I’ll finish it after the pink one and save it for the next baby boy that arrives.

So this week the only project I am going to concentrate on is the pink blanket. I’ll let you know how that works out next Wednesday. Or Thursday. LOL And maybe get one of the bear hats going….

As you can see this is being posted on Thursday. Things have been hectic, but interesting to say the least. I’ve had an odd combo of crafting projects this week, but I’ll start with the socks I talked about last week. I am almost down to my toes, I figure about 4 rows and I’ll begin the decreases for the toe shaping. If I find an hour to work on them before the weekend, I will be ready to cast on the second sock, but honestly think it will be completed over the weekend instead of before. Here is a pic of the yarn I am using, it is heavier than the usual sock yarn I use, but wanted this weight for next fall to wear inside a pair of short boots that I absolutely love 🙂

I also worked on fusing two tablecloths together. Sounds like an odd task, but let me explain. Back in the 80’s I was a stay at home Mom with 3 little boys. I used to read the magazines I received in the mail from cover to cover soaking in advise, tips and recipes. I read about starting a family tradition of signing a white table cloth on each holiday, then stitching the names to create a family heirloom of sorts. It seemed like a great idea until the stitching took longer than anticipated. I stitched some, my grandma stitched some, my aunt stitched some – and we still couldn’t keep up! So we switched to fabric paint. This was a good idea – or so we thought, until it started to flake off in the washing process (we actually eat with it on the table at all holidays) so we had to go to plan “C”. Now I purchase colorful Sharpie markers so that problem has been solved. Until….the younger generation started lobbying for a new tablecloth. All of the ex-girlfriends and a couple of ex-husbands were a point of contention. I was not willing to retire the tablecloth with the signatures of loved ones that are no longer with us. My grandma, mom, aunt and mother-in-law to name a few as well as the adorable signatures of the kids as they learned to print then write. So my plan was formed to make everyone as happy as I could. I purchased a second tablecloth, fused them together and will (hopefully before the next holiday) stitch a border on to even up the edges and secure the new side with the old side. Here is the pick I sent all the “youngsters” in the family to show them I was listening 🙂 They all seemed happy with the compromise.

The last thing I worked on this week was SOAP! I have been lusting after all of the beautiful soaps on Pinterest. My board Suds and Scrubs has tons of pins, I am obsessed. My friend Leslie got me the supplies I needed to make a simple batch of lemon soap for my birthday last week and I was dying to try it.

The first thing that needed to be done was dry shredded lemon peels. I now have 4 naked lemons in my fridge, but the peels were fabulously fragrant after drying in the sun.

The recipe was amazingly easy, soap base, essential oil, lemon peel and food coloring (note to self – one teeny speck of food coloring is more than enough). This was a super way to begin as it was easy and pretty fool proof . I made it in 2 batches, one with food coloring, one without.

And the finished product that I am very pleased with for my first soap adventure. I am thinking soap for everyone at Christmas!!! LOL

Now for the irons I have in the fire. The second sock is a given. I signed up for the Spring NICU challenge, so I have newborn size baby hats to make. Read more about it here: http://www.sunsetfamilyliving.com/spring-2015-nicu-challenge-join/ I am not too concerned about getting them done, since I’ve already donated the 20 bunny hats this month, but want to complete at least 10 more. The nurse I know that works in the NICU I donate to said everyone fights over the bear hats, so I think I will focus on them.

Lastly, the gal at work that I just finished the baby afghan for in February needs another one. I swear everyone she knows must be pregnant – with boys!!! I don’t know how happy she is going to be that I have to charge her more than I have been. I have been only a few dollars over the cost of the yarn, and honestly need to have a bit for all the hours involved.